Bites: Doña Tomás to leave Temescal, Brewbies beer festival

Doña Tomás owner Dona Savitsky will close the 20-year-old restaurant in Temescal and reopen a new counter-service eatery called Doña on Piedmont Avenue. Photo: Doña Tomás

DOÑA TO PIEDMONT AVE. Doña Tomás will end its 20-year-run in Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood this summer. As first reported by Eater, owner Dona Savitsky (who also owns Tacubaya in Berkeley) is closing the sit-down Mexican restaurant at 5004 Telegraph Ave. to open a new spot about a mile away, on Piedmont Avenue. Simply called Doña, the new counter-service eatery will be found on the ground level of the former Chow location, which is being subdivided between three businesses (no word yet on who the other two tenants will be). Doña will be co-run by manager Andee Brown, and will serve some of Doña Tomás’ most popular dishes, as well as brunch, weekday breakfast and an expanded bar menu. Doña is slated to open mid-September. It will be at 3770 Piedmont Ave. (at Yosemite), Oakland.

Both Doña Tomás and Tacubaya will celebrate Cinco de Mayo this Sunday, May 5, with performances by Hayward mariachi band, Mariachi Mexicanismo. The band will play from noon to 2 p.m. at Tacubaya (1782 Fourth St.) and for a special extended hours dinner service, from 6-8 p.m., at Doña Tomás.

OTRO FIESTA Agave Uptown in Oakland will celebrate Cinco de Mayo all day. Starting at 11 a.m., the Oaxacan restaurant will serve a special Cinco de Mayo menu (expect rib eye tacos, a combination meat platter, prickly pear cocktails, more) along with its regular menu, and live entertainment. Agave Uptown, 2135 Franklin St. (at 22nd), Oakland

TEMESCAL WINE Last week, Prima Materia, a wine shop and tasting room in Temescal Alley announced it will be hosting a weekend-long grand opening event from 1-6 p.m., May 11 and 12, featuring tastes of its older vintage wines and some bites. If you’re looking for a little more guidance, ask about its classes, held on second and fourth Thursday evenings, focusing on wine and food pairings. Prima Materia Tasting Room, 482 #B 49th St., at Temescal Alley, Oakland

SIGN OF THE TIMES If you’ve passed 6200 Claremont Ave. recently, you may have noticed competing signage outside of the building. The restaurant called Pho U, a Vietnamese spot run by Korean owners who eventually started serving some Korean and Japanese fare, is in the process of transitioning names to Ricephoria. Along with pho and vermicelli, you can order dishes like soondubu (soft tofu soup), tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet), bibimbap and jjajang rice (black bean sauce over rice). Ricephoria, 6200 Claremont Ave. (at Florio), Oakland

MIGRATION STORIES This Saturday, May 4, Oakland’s Red Bay Coffee will partner with global art and performance festival organizers MATATU for a look at the shared migration histories and experiences of the South Asian and African disaporas. Mississippi Masala: Dinner & Tropitaal Desi Latino Soundclash! starts at 6 p.m., with a dinner prepared by Preeti Mistry (Juhu Beach Club, Navi Kitchen), featuring Ugandan-influenced dishes inspired by her ancestors, who moved from Gujarat, India, to East Africa in the ’40s. After the meal, there’ll be a discussion with Heta Fell of arts, culture and current events podcast Stance, and Sana Javeri Kadri, founder of Diaspora Co., an Oakland-based fair-trade, sustainable spice company; a screening of Mira Nair’s film “Mississippi Masala,” and a dance party with DJ Leydis of Cuba and DJ’s Anjali & The Incredible Kid of Portland’s Tropitaal and ANDAZ. The dinner portion is sold out, but tickets for the rest of the evening’s events are available for $10-$18. Red Bay Coffee, 3098 E. 10th St., Oakland

THE BREAST BEER FESTIVAL For the fourth year in a row, Faction Brewing in Alameda will host Brewbies, a fundraiser for Keep a Breast Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to breast cancer awareness. Taking place from 1-5 p.m., Saturday, May 4, te event will feature beers from more than 45 West Coast breweries, eats from five food trucks, live music performances and lots more. Tickets are $45 ($20 for designated drivers) 21+ only. Faction Brewing, 2501 Monarch St., Alameda

HOT PIZZA NEWS Southern California-based pizza chain, Blaze, will soon open a new franchise location in Berkeley. The fast-casual restaurant specializes in “fast fire’d” (that is, baked for 180 seconds in extremely hot, radiant flame ovens) thin-crust pizzas, offering signature or build-your-own pies, with options for gluten-free dough, vegan cheese and other dairy-free products. A representative from the company confirmed Blaze will be at 2400 Bancroft Way, but will likely not open until later this year. Stay tuned on Nosh for more details.

SUGATA UPDATE Albany Japanese restaurant, Sugata, recently changed owners after being run for 37 years by the same family. As Nosh reported last November, former owners Koichi Endo and wife Kazue, both in their mid-70s, sold Sugata to retire. The restaurant closed in January for the transition, but reopened last week after some minor interior changes. Today is the grand opening for the new iteration of Sugata. Sugata, 1105 Solano Ave. (near San Pablo), Albany

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